Christmas. Bah, humbug.

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MikeAqua

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Reply # 1686897 13-Dec-2016 10:11

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I'm over it. Have been for years.

The peak of activity at Xmas ruins a good ten days of summer. Traffic (road toll), shops, restaurants, bars, boat ramps are all too congested to be enjoyable. Kayaking is hazardous and the fish usually go off the bite because there are so many boaties (many incompetent) on the water. The only way to avoid the maddening crowds is to stay at home.

This year I'm taking the minimum days off and using most of those to do an electrical refit of my boat.

I'll have it finished when all the once a year boaties are back at work and it quietens down enough for the fish to come back on the bite.

Mike

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Reply # 1687017 13-Dec-2016 12:03

MikeAqua:

I'm over it. Have been for years.

The peak of activity at Xmas ruins a good ten days of summer. Traffic (road toll), shops, restaurants, bars, boat ramps are all too congested to be enjoyable. Kayaking is hazardous and the fish usually go off the bite because there are so many boaties (many incompetent) on the water. The only way to avoid the maddening crowds is to stay at home.

This year I'm taking the minimum days off and using most of those to do an electrical refit of my boat.

I'll have it finished when all the once a year boaties are back at work and it quietens down enough for the fish to come back on the bite.

We always stay home. The roads are insane - I think that there is a special version of the Sunday Driver that only drives at Christmas or bank holidays so has even less idea how to do it than most of the population, whose standard is woeful to begin with.

Geektastic

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Reply # 1687029 13-Dec-2016 12:08

andrew027:

Christmas is always stressful around my house.

My parents-in-law are incapable of organising getting together for afternoon tea, even if all this means boiling the jug for an instant coffee and opening a packet of biscuits from the supermarket. This means my wife and her sister take it in turns to host the big day. Somehow this also means we end up having Christmas day with her family two years in a row and with my family once every three years. After 27 I still haven't been unable to make my wife see this as an imbalance.

My wife and her sister are very competitive so every Christmas has to out-do the previous one in some weird yule time arms race. For weeks before the big day I have to work through a list of everything that needs replacing, repairing, painting, weeding, pruning, cleaning and the food and drink gets ever more complicated and expensive.

My father-in-law is a prick. He's had a miserable life and the only way he can feel better about himself by ruining everyone else's day. You tell him to be there at 12:00pm so we can all have a drink and a chat and exchange gifts and start eating around 1:00pm, and he'll turn up some time around 2:30pm. There's a 99.9% chance he'll start an argument before lunch is finished. His favourite topics to rant about are Maori, lesbians and how materialistic we all are, but he'll go off about pretty much anything.

My brother will spend an obscene amount of money on gifts that nobody wants or needs, just because he can. And we'll feel bad that we spent around a third as much.

And I'm sure all our relatives have their stories about us as well. Surely we're as crazy to them as they are to us. We can't be the (only) normal ones.

As for birthdays at Christmas, my father's birthday is the start of December, mine is the 14th, my parents' wedding anniversary was Christmas Eve and my brother's birthday is January 2nd. It's a busy month.

Still, even with all this moaning, there will be a few stressful days but mostly it will be a good time. I will enjoy time with my immediate family, get some sunshine, drive around the country, catch up with friends I rarely see. I'll get to ride my bike a lot. And my daughter will get me something cool that she's put a lot of thought into because she's like that.

So merry Christmas to all Geekzoners. I hope you all have a safe, happy holiday and get to spend some time with the people you enjoy most.

Sounds like what my Christmas would be like if any of my relatives lived in the same country that I live in!!

BurningBeard

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Reply # 1687055 13-Dec-2016 13:08

I find it an inconvenience too.

My side of the family don't do gifts. Just go to whoever's place and have some kai. I really don't care for traditional Xmas food either. A roast dead thing and some standard vegetables. Meh.

Growing up in a broken home, I always felt bad for the parent whose turn it wasn't to have myself and my brother and at 38 I still do; only moreso because there's my partner's family too so there's pressure to see THREE different parts of the family on one day.

My very metal Doctor Who theme

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